The method most often applied today for assisting a patient with weak legs to move from a wheelchair to a toilet without needing to use excessive body strength is one in which the patient is pushed to his/her bed and lifted thereonto with the aid of a lifting device, possibly mounted on the ceiling above the bed. The patient then takes a lying position and his/her clothes are adjusted accordingly, whereafter the patient is lifted, with the aid of the lifting device, onto a toilet invalid chair and wheeled into the toilet room. The patient is returned to his/her bed in a similar manner, where necessary washing and drying of the patient is effected.
No. SE-B-7608298-1 describes a bed of complicated construction, which is intended to enable a patient to be moved from a lying position to a sitting position. This bed replaces the funtion of a ceiling-mounted lifting device.
Described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,215,469 (Wamsley) is an invalid chair which incorporates a displaceable plate which, when moved away, enables toilet functions to be performed while seated in the chair. The chair seat is fixed horizontally and can not be adjusted to different attitudes; to render sitting more comfortable. It is difficult to understand how the patient can be washed and dried, subsequent to using the toilet basin provided.
No. EP-A-0068668 (Williams) describes a wheelchair equipped with a collapsible back rest, in which when the back rest is lowered, the chair seat is raised to a higher level. The centre of gravity of the patient, however, is thereby moved from the back rest down towards the seat, and when the patient is subjected to further upward lifting movement, there is a risk that she/he will slide out of the chair. The leg supports do not accompany this movement.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,255,823 (Boyer et al) describes a separate movable transporter which is constructed to handle invalids and which includes a wheeled frame supporting a chair structure having a back part, a seat part and a leg part, which can be swung about intermediate hinge means between a patient sitting and a patient lying (stretcher) position. The arrangement is complicated and the transporter does not constitute a wheelchair or invalid chair in the true meaning of the term.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,393,529 (Britz) describes a separate wheeled chair frame which is adapted to receive a horizontal body support comprising a plurality of hinged components. Personnel using this arrangement are also required to perform relatively heavily lifting work, inter alia when the seat it lifted over to the chair structure.